Johanna Konta nearly dropped the ball on her opening round at the Apia Sydney International Monday. The sixth seed and world number ten remained victorious against Australian hopeful
This was the first time the players met with both having different starts to the 2017 season. The Russian had been trying to qualify herself in recent tournaments but couldn’t get beyond the mark to enter the main draw. She made it into Sydney defeating Danka Kovinic in straight sets to face the sixth seeded Brit. Konta did well getting to the quarterfinals in Shenzhen but her loss to Katerina Siniakova in the semis led her to try again but sit in a good spot to begin the WTA premier event.
Things remained on serve after four games as the Australians both maintained strong service holds. Konta turned up the heat in the fifth landing her first ace of the set. She began to impress with another winner down the line before Rodionova could respond. She showed competition but it came too late to break Konta. The Sydney native pushed for deuce in the sixth trying to change the tide of the game. She fought back through three breaks before taking the game away from the Australian.
Konta pushed her margin to a pair of games hunting well for the service hold in the ninth. Rodionova remained a strong force across court leveling the score at times until she found a way to take over. The sixth seed didn’t want her opponent to get any significant momentum and answered by forcing deuce to take the game away thereby gaining a set lead on Rodionova. It took 45 minutes to close up the opening set which was due to a strong showing on service with 13 of 17 for points and 66 percent success on the return.
Things got better for Konta in the second as she completely ran away with the pace. The world number ten broke the Aussie in the first before picking up another that gave her an easy 3-0 hold. Rodionova came back to get on the board but her efforts remained quiet. Despite the unranked star’s attempts to get into the game, it was a long road to take down Konta who climbed to a 5-2 hold making good on her serve to save the force of deuce from the Aussie and hold.
Konta double faulted for a seventh time creating chances for Rodionova in the eighth game to seal it with an eighth double fault handing her opponent the win. It was the fifth of the set and a dangerous time to drop control when the match was in her reach. She allowed Rodionova another win which almost looked to become a three-set thriller for the unranked Aussie. Konta regrouped from her mistakes and made the tenth game count most of all sealing the important first round win to her benefit ending 1 hour and 31 minute straight set match.
Aside from the mistakes in her opening round, the hometown’s best would try to improve facing the winner between Donna Vekic and Australian Daria Gavrilova in the second round.
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